The next generation of information technology could take advantage of spintronics—electronics that use the minuscule magnetic fields emanating from spinning electrons as well as the electric charges of the electrons themselves—for faster, smaller electronic devices that use less energy. Newly published work by scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the University of Utah […]

Written by Katherine Wright, senior editor for Physics, and re-published here with permission. See original post: https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.197701 The Wigner crystal is an elusive beast. Predicted in 1934, this crystal of electrons, which is one of the most strongly correlated states of matter, forms when the electron density is ultralow. But a lack of clean enough systems […]

The National Science Foundation has awarded $1,635,591 to scientists from the University of Utah and a collaborator from University of California, Los Angeles, to research one of the biggest hurdles to quantum computing—the quantum logic units, or “qubits,” that carry information. The award is one of 19 Quantum Idea Incubator grants totaling $32 million funded […]

The struggle to keep drinks cold during the summer is a lesson in classical phase transitions. To study phase transitions, apply heat to a substance and watch how its properties change. Add heat to water and at the so-called “critical point,” watch as it transforms into a gas (steam). Remove heat from water and watch […]

Mar. 12, 2018— In 1991, University of Utah chemist Joel Miller developed the first magnet with carbon-based, or organic, components that was stable at room temperature. It was a great advance in magnetics, and he’s been exploring the applications ever since. Twenty-five years later, physicists Christoph Boehme and Valy Vardeny demonstrated a method to convert […]

University of Utah mathematicians propose a theoretical framework to understand how waves and other disturbances move through materials in conditions that vary in both space and time. The theory, called “field patterns,” published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Field patterns are characteristic patterns of how disturbances react to changing conditions. Because field […]